Part 3: Last minute checklist and mini-drama
For any of you out there who were at the World last May, especially at the beginning, remember how Disney's Magical Express was just getting started? Remember how those super special luggage tags WEREN'T magically arriving 4 weeks prior to your trip? Remember how The Happiest Celebration on Earth kicked off on May 5, and everybody (well at least everybody around these boards) knew that DME might take a while to iron out the kinks and start living up to its magical potential?
Our arrival was May 6th.
After a few weeks of freaking out because I didn't have luggage tags and was positive that my family's bags would just languish at the airport, I finally got a grip. Thanks to the transportation board on the Dis, I wised up and tied big huge red and green plaid Christmas bows onto all our bags. To make them easier to identify amid the sea of black luggage they were bound to be swimming in.
Magical Express freakout complete. Check.
Arrange for our favorite babysitter to come by to feed and snuggle with the cat. Check.
Call DH's dad every day the week prior to remind him that he was taking us to the airport and keeping our car at his place until he came to pick us up again. Check, double check check. He needs a lot of reminding.
Get a little packet of "work" from DS5's kindergarten teacher. She is the BEST. She made him a little journal to write in, and a few math activities we could do together. She even wrote him a note to assure him that the class would celebrate his birthday when he got back. Because she knew that, to a kindergartner, getting to bring in the cupcakes and have your friends sing to you, is a VERY big deal. She is, really, the BEST.
Extra week off from school. Check. Pick up flame-proof garments from the cleaners. Check.
Collect birthday cards and small gifts for ds5 from all the grandparents, aunts & uncles who WOULD have been coming to his birthday party. If we were home. Check.
Finish the packing. Check.
Have a brief and weird argument on the phone with my mom, who thinks that I need to tell the kids about the supersecretsurprise trip. Now? I've been keeping it secret for months. Why would I cave the day before we leave? She tells me, no kidding, "You know I don't butt into your business, but I really feel strongly that you should tell them."
What?!?
This is the line in the sand she wants to draw? She thinks that the anticipation of the trip is at least as much fun as going. (Good point, mom. My anticipation of this surprise has been tons of fun, too. And don't forget, they're already having the fun of anticipation. For a trip in four years.) She even joke-threatens to call them and let it "slip." I tell her that would be a very bad move and that I won't even send her a postcard if she does this.
Apparently I am also the meanest daughter in the world. Check. Go Karen, you're definitely at the top of the list now!
Clean the house and change all the sheets. Because I have this thing where coming home from vacation, especially Disney, is sooo much worse when you come home to a pit. Check.
Feed, bathe, and snuggle my babies, tuck them into bed the last night before our big adventure. Check. Excitedly whisper a few more points of our itinerary into The Vault. Check.
Set the alarm for way too blinkin' early but we're going to Disney so yayyyyyy! ... and go to bed. Check. Over and out.
Coming soon: Part 4: The Adventure (finally) Begins
I'm so hooked.. can't wait to read more!!!!
Oh wait I am on my way with my very own surprise trip this December. DD4 thinks we are going with friends in a few years.
Well you are a few years younger so we couldn't have been seperated at birth but my goodness! I am currently in the throws of planning the suprise secret first trip for my family. They too have been fed the line that little brother needs to be older before we attempt a trip like this! Little do they know it is booked for December! And I have a secret bag in my closet filling with stuff for the trip! I comb ebay for Disney treasures to add to my bag! And when the oldest (the only one who reads, well the middle one reads but not well yet) is around I have to do a computer lock down but otherwise I can plan away. Heck little guy is right here now watching The Tigger Movie and he has no clue he will be meeting the bouncy fellow in just 8 short months! 
!!!!!
